Worst SFX No.15: Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Even leading man Stellan Skarsgård agrees that the devilish hyenas that crawl out of a well to attack a young boy in Renny Harlin's emergency re-shoot are pretty damn poor. Many would lump in the CGI deer in Ring 2 and I Am Legend with this, but at least I didn't notice their non-existence immediately. There are a number of problems with creating animals that are already familiar to us (at least out of documentaries), the main one being that they never do what the director tells them; if they're 'acting', they must be fake. We're also years away from understanding the chaotic patterns that define how fur moves, and how animals would move if they were going to do what we wanted them to. That said, these particular hounds are just a bit under-funded…

Return to Top 24 worst special effects of all time